Advertisers commonly use mass-distributable packets to promote their products. These packets are distributed by mail, by insert into newspapers or other periodicals, by hand delivery, or otherwise. Advertisers use various specialty products, including but not limited to spinning wheel formats, to enhance the appeal of the mass-distributable packets.
Mass-distributable packets are conventionally printed on a web press and finished on an in-line finishing system associated with the web press, in a single press run, from a single web. The packets are prepared by printing the information to appear on the packets in a plurality of longitudinal areas extending parallel to the web, cutting the web longitudinally between the print patterns to form ribbons, superimposing the cut ribbons in a vertical registry, and then cutting the ribbons transversely to form the sets of printed pieces. The ribbons can be folded and cut in a variety of ways to create many different forms.
It is particularly desirable to minimize the cost of manufacture and to maximize the speed of production. In the prior art, spinning wheel formats were made by attaching the wheel to the face portion and/or to the base portion by a metal grommet. This method is time-consuming as well as expensive, requiring the use of separate materials and complicated assembly techniques. Additionally, the spinning wheel format then had to be added to the mass-distributable packet by a tip-on process, which caused at least alignment problems and increased make-ready time. It would be advantageous to be able to manufacture a spinning wheel format in a continuous single-pass finishing system, and especially to do so for production of mass-distributable packets of printed materials.
One improvement on the metal grommet assembly was described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,067 to Hibsh, Method of Making a Paper Spinning Wheel Product, which used a single-pass finishing system, and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein. In this grommetless method, the spinning wheel format is manufactured in a single pass from a continuous web. Problems arise from this method, however. Because of the way the wheel is cut from a ribbon of the web, the wheel of the format is octagonal in shape, rather than circular, which detracts from the spinning-wheel appearance. Additionally, the wheel rotates about a glue area, which serves as an axle. There is poor alignment between the wheel and the axle, so the wheel turns somewhat haphazardly rather than smoothly.
Accordingly, there is a need for a smoothly spinnable spinning wheel format, for a less-expensive, easily set up, single-pass system for creating a spinning wheel format, and a need for a system for incorporating the spinning wheel format into a mass-distributable packet. The present invention meets these needs.